Saturday, July 24, 2010

How is the scrappy Plaquemines Parish Inland Waterway Strike Force cleaning up BP's mess as oil creeps into their backyard—the wetlands of southeastern Louisiana? With dustbusters. And they say they're "knocking the socks off" BP's cleanup crews.

We've seen the pilot for NBC's The Event, and while we still don't know what the titular Event is, we're impressed by this politically-charged thriller, which contains shades of Lost and 24. Spoilers inside.

With little fanfare, the Event panel kicked off with a showing of the first episode of The Event, which, appropriately enough, opens with an event. We don't know exactly what this event is, but we see malfunctioning news cameras trained on US President Elias Martinez (played by Blair Underwood) as an anchorwoman screams for the cameras to shoot at something in the sky.

The question of racism in the amorphous Tea Party movement is, of course, a serious one, since so much of the Republican Party seems to be in the thrall of its activists. There have been scattered reports around the country of racially charged rhetoric within the movement, most notably just before the vote on the new health care law last March, when Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, the legendary civil rights leader, was showered with hateful epithets outside the Capitol.

The fundamental problem with Bai's assertion regarding the "most notable" racist incident is that it didn't happen. It's a big lie.

Ah yes. "Mad Men." It is the single most exquisite television in town. The characters are beautifully dinged up, complex and flawed. The sets are so perfect, your breath will be uncontrollably swept away. The relationships profiled are so twisted, this show will make you fully appreciate the relationship you're in.

Desperate days for the warmists

Warmists may be winning the big grants, but they're not winning the argument, says Christopher Booker

Herding cattle in Chile as South America suffers one of its coldest winters for years

Ever more risibly desperate become the efforts of the believers in global warming to hold the line for their religion, after the battering it was given last winter by all those scandals surrounding the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

One familiar technique they use is to attribute to global warming almost any unusual weather event anywhere in the world. Last week, for instance, it was reported that Russia has recently been experiencing its hottest temperatures and longest drought for 130 years. The head of the Russian branch of WWF, the environmental pressure group, was inevitably quick to cite this as evidence of climate change, claiming that in future "such climate abnormalities will only become more frequent". He didn't explain what might have caused the similar hot weather 130 years ago.

In America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been trumpeting that, according to its much-quoted worldwide temperature data, the first six months of this year were the hottest ever recorded. But expert analysis on Watts Up With That, the US science blog, shows that NOAA's claimed warming appears to be strangely concentrated in those parts of the world where it has fewest weather stations. In Greenland, for instance, two of the hottest spots, showing a startling five-degree rise in temperatures, have no weather stations at all.

A second technique the warmists have used lately to keep their spirits up has been to repeat incessantly that the official inquiries into the "Climategate" scandal have cleared the top IPCC scientists involved of any wrongdoing, and that their science has been "vindicated". But, as has been pointed out by critics like Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit, this is hardly surprising, since the inquiries were careful not to interview any experts, such as himself, who could have explained just why the emails leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) were so horribly damaging.

There is no getting around the fact that some of these messages, culled from the members-only discussion group Journolist, are embarrassing. They show liberal commentators appearing to cooperate in an effort to hammer out the shrewdest talking points against the Republicans -- including, in one case, a suggestion for accusing random conservatives of being racist.

The key question is whether the openly opinionated commentators among Journolist's 400 members were so swept away by ideology that they cared mainly about doing damage to the other side. The group consisted primarily of left-leaning commentators, bloggers and policy wonks, with some mainstream or centrist reporters as well. Conservatives -- Carlson himself asked to join earlier this year, and Klein turned him down -- were not accepted.

The first Daily Caller story this week featured e-mails after a 2008 campaign debate in which ABC's Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos pressed candidate Barack Obama with a series of confrontational questions, some of them about Jeremiah Wright.

"George is being a disgusting little rat snake," declared Richard Kim of the Nation.

Michael Tomasky, an opinion writer for the Guardian, wrote: "Listen folks -- in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn't about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people."

'Star Wars In Concert' Puts The Force In The Music

Yoda looks tough over the orchestra.

A long time ago — just over 33 years to be exact — the Star Wars saga burst into the nation's theaters.

The so-called space opera opened on just 32 screens. But it has since evolved into a complete universe, with six movies and a current animated series. The franchise has grossed more than $15 billion in worldwide box office and merchandizing.

Now there's a new way to enjoy it: Star Wars in Concert.

It's like the Star Wars movies, but cooler. Because the stars here are the 85-member symphony orchestra and the 60-voice choir that bring this story to life in a uniquely visceral way.

Chokeberry Extract Found to Regulate Weight Gain, Blood Glucose, and Inflammation in Rats

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2010) — Chokeberry bushes have for centuries been residents of eastern deciduous forests where their bright red and dark purple fruits continue to be favorite snacks of local bird species. Native Americans have also traditionally eaten dried chokeberries and prepared teas from parts of the plant, and several domesticated varieties now grace contemporary lawns and gardens from coast to coast. However, the chokeberry (Aronia) is enjoying a new claim-to-fame as a potentially powerful antioxidant, and can now be found for sale in the dietary supplement and "health food" aisles of your local pharmacies and grocery stores.

Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day And make me travel forth without my cloak, To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way, Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke? ’Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break, To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face. . .

But as you suspected, Shakespeare's real quarrel is with a beloved, not with the Sun -

Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief; Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss: The offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief To him that bears the strong offence’s cross.

Yet, oh, yet -

. . .those tears are pearl which thy love sheds, And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.

Christmas is not a big deal for the Obamas. They barely celebrate the day at all. The president told People magazine that the First Daughters get no presents at Christmas because Michelle and Barack are trying "to teach limits" to their children. They must also be trying to teach limits to each other. On Christmas Day 2009, Anne E. Kornblut reported that the Obamas did not go to church, did not exchange gifts, but like the wise men and the shepherds before them, hit the gym on Christmas morn. They capped the day with a special meal of "roast beef and potatoes."

When Obama and his democratic cronies were shoving his stimulus bill down the throats of Americans, a blogger named Liberty Belle (Keli Carender) cried foul. In desperation she organized a protest, quickly dubbed a "tea party," in Seattle. On the day of the party, she wrote on her blog: "Make no mistake, the president will be signing that bill tomorrow; I have no illusions that he will actually listen to us. But, maybe, just maybe we can start a movement that will snowball across the nation and get people out of their homes, meeting each other and working together to redirect this country towards its truly radical founding principles of individual liberty and freedom. Maybe people will wake up slowly at first, and then quickly when they realize the urgency needed." And wake up they did.

A recent study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine indicated that abstinence-based education programs are effective -- more students remain chaste after taking the classes (two-thirds) and young people learn to respect their bodies. In poll after poll, parents prefer that their children learn the virtue of abstinence before marriage. But parents be damned. President Obama defunded abstinence-only education in his first year in office. In 2011, he has proposed routing more than $100 million to new condom-focused sex ed programs.

Intel's Cash Register Concept Of the Future

If Intel has its way, boring cash registers will be replaced with these machines of the future. It's more than just sexy glass, metal and touchscreen—its an Intel-powered experience that recognizes you and the way you shop.

Intel had conceptualized this new-age cash registera year ago, but this working prototype puts their idea to glass and steel. The way this self-checkout kiosk works is that it'll recognize your shopping habits and purchase history from your credit card and give recommendations of other products you might want to buy. You know, to get you to spend more money. The idea is to give the best features of online shopping (ease of checkout, recommendations, history) in a brick and mortar setting. And to look really cool doing it.

Hops Helps Reduce Ammonia Produced by Cattle

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2010) — An Agricultural Research Service (ARS ) scientist may have found a way to cut the amount of ammonia produced by cattle. To do it, he's using a key ingredient of the brewer's art: hops.

SOCIAL PRIVILEGE: Paul Campos sounds like Angelo Codevilla while writing about the career of Elena Kagan. “The relative ease with which Elena Kagan is being confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court illustrates the extent to which Establishment America believes that a member of the club in good standing – someone who has gone to the right schools, and gotten the right kinds of jobs, and befriended the right sorts of people – can be counted on to do the right thing, even though her own legal and political views remain largely unknown. Naturally, from the establishment’s perspective, the right thing is to do nothing that might seriously disturb any of the social arrangements that continue to serve its interests so well. And in the end, Obama’s faith in Kagan is most likely based on a well-warranted belief that, as a Supreme Court justice, she will prove to be as acceptable to that establishment as Obama himself.”